Author Archives: Susan Olberding

Travelers driving on U.S. Highway 180 (aka Fort Valley Road) near Flagstaff are greeted with a mix of rustic-looking buildings, wooden cattle fences and open space as the road carves a route through the ponderosa pine forest. While the times have changed, the panoramas that gripped homesteaders in the 1880s and influenced the historic road's route still amaze.

George Washington assumed command of the Continental Army under an Ulmus Americana Elm tree in Cambridge, Mass., on July 3, 1775. The tree died in October 1923, but foresighted botanists made sure its legacy lived on at universities across the United States, including the campus at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff.

"Hell and another Forest Reserve has been created at Flagstaff."
This phrase greeted Fred S. Breen in August, 1898, at the railroad stop in Laury Junction, N.M. Breen was en route to report as supervisor of the Prescott Forest Reserve in Arizona, but was intercepted by U.S. Forest Service Superintendent John D. Benedict, who rerouted Breen to Flagstaff.

During the summer of 1933, a scientific reconnaissance project, "Rainbow Bridge/Monument Valley Expedition" (RBMVE) began in the remote reaches of northeastern Arizona. The idea was conceived by Ansel Franklin Hall of the National Park Service, following a suggestion by U.S. Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes.

Early U.S. Forest Service (USFS) scientists assigned to study the northern Arizona forests realized the importance of climate when it comes to the life of trees. One of the first tasks researchers undertook was to establish weather-recording equipment at the nation's first USFS forest research site at Fort Valley, near Flagstaff.

The 1873 and 1876 migrations into Arizona Territory by the Church of Latter-day Saints (LDS) primarily followed the wildly fluctuating course of the Little Colorado River. Town sites initially established at river's edge were often washed out, which caused settlers to move to higher ground. The settlers usually located at sites that were already occupied by others, and today's names of these locations often reflect LDS heritage. Following is a brief history of the names of some of these areas.